Ino's Love Life
by Maggieraven
Summary: Ino recounts the boys that made an impact in her love life. Who will be her true love?


**Ino's Love Life**

Rated:T+

Hello, my name is Ino Yamanaka, and I am a ninja from the Leaf Village. I have been called many names in my life but the one that seems to stand out and the one that hurts the most is, Slut! What is a slut actually? Well, the dictionary, says dirty, slovenly, prostitute, sexually promiscuous. I am not dirty or slovenly or a prostitute, but I guess some might call me promiscuous. I will tell you my story and you can decide for yourself.

Well, as a kid I was always either in the shinobi academy or helping my parents with their flower shop. They wanted me to be around the business I guess on the chance I never advanced as a kunoichi. They said that was not the reason, and that it was just a matter of free labor, but I knew better. My mom always told me I was way too pretty to be a kunzite, and that it would be a shame to get my face all scarred in a fight or something. I always liked the way the academy made me feel and I like the idea of being strong and powerful. My best friend was Sakura Haruno, a pink hair girl from the academy. I always thought she was pretty enough to be my friend, even though her forehead was a bit wide. Well that was actually my nickname for her later on. You may think that was mean but she called me "pig" back, so I think that is way harsher. The first boy I had a crush on was sadly enough the same boy Sakura had a crush on; his name is Sasuke Uchiha. He was very deep and I guess he still is to this day. He has very deep black eyes, black hair and the face of perfection incarnate. He is part of a now extinct clan who had very powerful sharingans. He was the first boy I really, really liked, so my friendship with Sakura suffered a lot because of it. Sasuke was never the social butterfly and was always very serious and focused. Nobody knew it but I often watched him train from a tree top close to the training grounds he visited regularly. I am not quite sure if he ever knew of my presence but if he did, he never showed it or confronted me about it. It was so hard for me back then to think any boy would not like me. I had a lot of admirers in the village even as a young girl. Sasuke was never one of them. It made me sad and I used to cry at night some times. I could count the times he even talked to me during the academy days in one hand. When the time came to be divided into teams all the girls wanted to be in Sasuke's team. This was the first day I was truly mad at the world. Sakura ended up in Sasuke's team and the blow to me was very harsh. I ended up in the team with the laziest dude Shikamaru Nara and the eating fiend Choji. That day I felt like hell; no matter to who you paired me with, whoever it was it was not Sasuke. Sakura did everything possible to rub it in my face for like a whole month after that. The day the teams were formed I cried in the bathroom, I of course did not want to show my sadness or weakness to anyone.I overheard Choji teasing other boys that he got me in his team and how upset some of the boys were. I felt bad for the other boys because I was feeling sorry for myself. All my life, especially when I was young, I always felt like the beautiful people were of more worth than the ugly ones. It was a good thing that in Konoha, my village; even the dorky guys like Naruto were pretty attractive. We also have our dogs believe me, even scary looking. At least my fellow shinobi are all passable, but back when I was in the academy and as a genin, it was all about Sasuke and fighting for him, especially against Sakura. Even to this day we have kind of a love hate relationship and we are always competing against each other. It is kind of good to have that; it makes you try harder at all you do.

My Team was Team 10; Team Asuma. Asuma Sarutobi was our Sensei; he was very big and tall. The first impression I got of him, was that he was handsome and he looked like a bad ass. Maybe the cigarette hanging from the side of his mouth had something to do with it. I immediately felt like I could learn a lot from him and that helped me a lot in the long run. I wanted to impress my team; I wanted them to know I would be of value and not just a pretty face, like many people view me at that time. Shikamaru kind of reminded me of Sasuke in the sense that he did not really speak all that much and was pretty serious for a kid. Sensei and Shikamaru got along really good and they spent a lot of time together. This allowed me and Choji time to get to know each other very well. We usually spared against each other while Sensei trained Shika. Choji was the first boy I went out with, believe it or not. We were always training together and I felt comfortable enough with him that I started going out with him after trainings. We went to movies and of course out to eat. I actually gained 10 pounds after a week of dates. But things were not really building up romantically, at least for me. Choji tried to kiss me twice but I would not let him be my first kiss. He was pretty upset with me and then I decided I was not to go out with him anymore, because as my mother put it; I was leading him on. Asuma noticed right away that we were kind of distancing from each other and somewhat angry with each other. That was when he turned his attention from Shikamaru to me. I still remember him sitting us down;"I don't care what happened between you two, I don't care if you guys are fighting away from here, but while we are a team you will work together and get along with each other. Am I understood? Shika and Choji will be paired up now for sparing and you and me Ino will have some one on one training. It is time for it anyway"At that time I thought fine, anything to be away from the daggers coming out of Choji's eyes. Soon I realized how much of a blessing it had been our fight. It meant time with my sensei; time to pick his brain and time to learn all sort of cool things. I was like a sponge, a greedy sponge and Sensei was my first kiss. Freaky huh? Well he would just be so proud when I got a jutsu right he would grab me and kiss my face wherever he got it. He kissed my forehead, my eyes, or even my nostrils on occasion. He just grabbed me and plant a big kiss wherever it landed. The first time it landed on my lips I don't even think he noticed but I sure did. I was so embarrassed I faked a cramp to go home. I know he didn't mean anything bad out of it and to be absolutely truthful to this day I don't even think he knows. My sensei loved all of us, he was a proud sensei. We all fought for time alone with him. Choji and I made up after a month. He had found a girlfriend and was in a very happy place. We were going out for missions and we knew we had to be a united front, no matter how easy our mission would be. I was still crushing after Sasuke of course but there was another boy who made my heart flutter on occasion. It was Shikamaru and it meant team trouble.

One thing that bothered Shikamaru about me most was my diets. Through the years I have been on a few and it drives him bonkers for some reason I later discovered. He usually dealt with my bossiness because he was too lazy to argue, or so I thought back then. I knew that I had to keep my real feelings hidden because I didn't want Asuma sensei to be mad at me again or Shika to hate me or vice versa. There was also something else that bothered me. I didn't want to lose my feelings for Sasuke, or just let Sakura have him either. Things got a whole lot more complicated when Sasuke left Konoha, and way much sadder. Everyone was worried about Sakura and Naruto but nobody was worried about my feelings. I cried for a whole 3 days and sleepless nights. My mother bugged me so much to get out of the house that I finally did, but ended up in the tree where I used to watch Sasuke train. Everyone guessed it was just a crush but to me it felt like much more. After that Shikamaru and I were sparing partners and it was very hard for me to feel my heart flutter when he showed up or something. I felt like I was betraying my feelings for Sasuke. One thing happened when Shika was attacking me in a sparing session that changed my heart forever. He pinned me down to the ground and looked me straight in the eyes. We locked eyes and stayed there just looking at each other while our breathing tried to lessen in vain. It was very clear that the breathing in my chest was not at all a sign of exhaustion but of something quite different. He had me pinned down with both my arms above my head. He was leaning in to kiss me and I was almost begging for it in my head when Asuma returned with Choji and Shika flew off me as quick as possible. I turned away so none of them could see my blushing face. I was very glad to hear Asuma Sensei end our training for that day and I pretty much ran home. In my bed I tried to figure out what had happen and it was clear to me then that Shikamaru had to like me, even if he never showed it before. After that day I flirted a lot with Shikamaru whenever we had a moment alone but never when the team was present. He seemed to be avoiding those times like the plague and to me it was pretty funny and not at all annoying. The chunin exams came and went and I PASSED! Oh yeah celebration! Asuma Sensei gave us special earrings to celebrate; I still wear mine to this day. Now we were all Chunin, and I thought that Shika would ask me out, now that we were not under Asuma Sensei's tutelage, but he didn't.

The summer of my fifteenth birthday, I wanted a boyfriend really bad. There was a guy that always went in to the flower shop to buy flowers for his mom. He was cute and a Shinobi, a Jounin actually; even though he was quite older than me I decided to asked him out. It was very clear by the way he looked at me and all the compliments he paid me that he came to the shop to see me more than to get flowers for his mother. Mother's don't really need a bouquet every other day. I had to make sure that my parents didn't hear me because they really didn't like him, being that he was so obviously interested in me and he was like 28 years to my 15. My dad would have killed the guy if he wasn't a paying customer, for sure. His name was Genma and he had been one of my Chunin examiners; that is how we met for the first time. He has brown hair to his neck, brown eyes and a super cute smile. He is tall and ninja built, also he was always playing with a senbon; I asked him if it was his toothpick to bother him once but then he spitted the thing past my head and right into wall behind me. I was at the store that day and he came around my side of the counter to retrieve his senbon but not without bumping into me first. I later found out just how playful he could really be. The summer passed and I had no chance to ask him, being that we got inundated with missions and there I had to deal with my emotions for Shikamaru who seemed to ignore me even more that summer. For my 16th birthday my mom threw me a big party and guessed who came; flower boy Genma. I went to greet him and he told me he had a gift for me but it was outside. He reached out his hand for me to put my hand in his, obviously. I looked around and it looked like nobody was watching us so I held his hand and let him lead me outside of my house and around the alley next to the flower shop. "Where are we going Genma? What kind of gift is this?" I asked a little nervous."I want to make sure nobody is around when I kiss you", he said and softly pushed me to the wall behind me. We were in a little dark alley. There I had my first real kiss. It was a very nice, very long, very hot first kiss.

" Did you like that beautiful?" he asked while he caressed my cheekI was melting, it felt so good and he smelled so good I just knew I wanted more of it; and I took that day on we started to go out in secret and it was great. He taught me a lot, and almost everything, if it wasn't for Shikamaru who dragged him out of our campsite tent one night; the night we were going to go further than fooling around. He beat the crap out of him with Choji's help and even Neji was in on it. Shika was so mad."If you put another finger on her I will tell Asuma Sensei and the Hokage, you old pervert, she is just 16!" Shikamaru screamed at him. Genma disappeared after the beating and I was somehow for the first time in my life speechless.I didn't see Genma again for years after that day. I was both sad and happy. I never loved Genma but he was a good experience that I am glad I had the opportunity to enjoy. And he also made Shikamaru realized his feelings for me and act upon them.

That night Shika beat Genma, he sat me down and pretty much lectured me. He could not believe I had been going out with such an old guy. I was mad at him and that really helped me confessed my feelings for him."So what am I supposed to do then? You are the one I wanted to lose my virginity to, the one I really wanted to share my love and my kisses to, but you are just ignoring me, like I am nothing more than a co- worker to you now. You don't even spar with me any longer. You do not talk to me like you used to. I thought for a moment long ago that you actually liked me but I guess I was wrong so I took a boyfriend who liked me""That guy is just taking advantage of you silly he just wants in your pants. He is almost 30! What, are you going to go make out with sensei next?"" Maybe I will, at least I know his junk works, by what other woman say; unlike yours"" Oh my junk works just fine, just not for sluts"I slapped him so hard after he said that but he did not miss a step and kissed me right in front of Neji and Choji. It was more an attack than a kiss. It actually hurt a bit but I taught him a lesson when I shoved my hand down the front of his pants and grabbed a very alert Shika Jr. while biting his lip. He stopped the kiss quite rapidly and stood there very still and very quiet. "Calm down you stupid idiot; I love you and I always had, but I need someone to love me back if you are ready to be that someone then kiss me the right way and send these guys away" I was dead serious and he knew it. I took my hand away from him and went into my tent. Less than a minute later Shika came into the tent and sat in front of me. He was embarrassed about what he did and I knew him well enough to know it. He said sorry and looked down at his feet. "What do you feel for me Shika? Do you feel anything real at all?""Ino I love you, don't act like you don't know""I am not psychic Shika. Once I thought you liked me but then you would just ignore me so I don't really know""I love you, and I want you to be only mine. I wanted to be your first kiss, your first everything""You can still be my first" I said this as I stripped of my clothing little by little and as I fought against the butterflies in my belly and the blush in my night I became one with the only man I truly really loved, my first real love kiss, my first time giving myself to another body and soul. Shikamaru became more than a boyfriend; he became my reason for existence. I would dread all the times he would go on missions without me. And I would be crazy jealous when a cute girl would go with him on long missions, especially that whore Temari from the Sand village. I knew she liked him a lot and she was older than us. She was blond like me and I knew Shika liked blonds, duh! I had gone out to some missions with Naruto, a ninja from Sakura's team a couple of times before but this one time he was just blabbering away about how Shika was so taken with Temari. I wanted to strangle Naruto and I hoped he was just saying those things to bother me, but it planted a seed in me. Could I really trust Shikamaru? I always had, even when I would be jealous inside myself, I would never tell him anything. I noticed that Shika was always involved in the missions to the Sand so I decided to go ask Tsundae- Sama about it. I could not see her but her assistant Shizune told me that the sand was the one who always asked to have Shika involved. To make things worse every time the bitch will come to Konoha it was Shika's duty to escort her around.

I can still remember the exact date; it was a Friday, 13th of October, at 3:15 pm. Shikamaru came into the flower shop with that,' my puppy is dead', expression, he very seldom showed. I was scared and immediately thought somebody had died; so I ran to him and held his face in my hands but he pushed my hands away. Now I literally felt my stomach dropped along with my heart. What was going on? I knew it was bad and I knew I was involved. "Sorry Ino, I want out...I mean, we're done".I could not muster the strength to ask why or if I had done something to deserve this. My face was covered in tears and I was just looking at him dumbfounded. He looked down and just whisper sorry before he left me there crying and confused. I could not remember much after that; for some reason my mind has put it away in storage, because I just know I woke up, like a week after that, in Konoha's hospital ,hooked up to an iv, and 10 pounds lighter. People would come to visit me but I could not hear then, I was somewhere else completely. My parents were super worried about me. I later found out even my mom was taking depression pills because of my sensei came to see me and it was him who brought me back. He took the IV from my arm, after a month in the hospital and told me I was done now. He took me in his arms and he stood with me on the edge of a hill overlooking Konoha's big lake. It was a pretty high ledge. He stood me next to him and grabbed my face with one of his hands and not the sweetest way either."What is this shit Ino? Do you want to die? Is that it? Do you want to throw all of it away for a stupid boy who doesn't deserve it? Look down there; do you see the water?"And then he just pushed me down. I could feel the cold wind slashing my face and then it was so cold I immediately jumped out of the freezing water and that was it. That was all it took to bring me back. I was still sad and confused but I was human again and I was in this world again. People would talk to me and I understood what they said. Even Sakura felt bad for me then. She knew I loved Shikamaru with all I had and after my little hospital stay, so did most people in Konoha. The next blow came about three months after that. I found out while at the Barbe Q restaurant that Shikamaru was engaged to Temari. It was very hard for me and for my medical training. I had been in the hospital learning new techniques with Sakura and I knew Tsundae-Sama would not accept failure from either of us no matter what. To make things worse I was to go on a mission to the Sand and I felt like throwing up.

I had been going out with any boy who would ask me out, but none really did it for me. It was from a date with Rock Lee that I learned about Temari's little brother Gaara. He was my same age and was already leader or Kazekage of his village. He was also a ninja and a bijuu like Naruto, which meant there was a beast sealed inside of him. I knew Naruto for so long that the whole Bijuu thing was not as scary as it was for some other people. It was when Rock Lee told me how Shikamaru really didn't like the guy that my mind was set. If I was to date Gaara it would piss off both Shika and Temari and even though it was a stupid, foolish and childlike move, I was all about it. From what Sakura had told me, this Gaara dude had been to Konoha before, but I could not remember him to save my life. She told me that he was kind of scary looking and that he sure liked his eyeliner. I could not care less what he looked like and to me that was like a major thing. It proved to me how mad and hungry for revenge I really was. This plan came to be one of the major bad ideas I had ever come with. I will try not to get ahead of myself here so let's go back. I was going on the mission to the Sand with Neji, (who I never dated), Kiba (who I dated for three months) and Guy sensei (no, I didn't go there). We reported to the Kazekage and there is where I met him, Gaara of the Sand. This is what I had to do to make him want me; not a damn thing! He wanted protection for himself and his siblings during a week of sports festivities he was having in the village, where athletes came from all over. When he saw me he did not take his eyes away from me and it was creepy as all hell. He would talk to all of us but only look at me. I was trying to look away or look at my team but I was so embarrassed I could not hide how nervous the guy made me feel. He came with the idea of me being disguised as his girlfriend. Things were working out so well I should have guessed it was too perfect to be true, and it was. Yes, Shikamaru was absolutely furious about it, even though he knew it was a fake. This Gaara would not keep his hands away from me. We walked everywhere holding hands and he would kiss me in the mouth every chance he had. I could tell Shika was mad. So mad that in fact one time during an event; he waited for me to exit the bathroom to pull me aside and scream at me;"What the hell do you think you are doing Ino?""I am on a mission, you know that; and in any case, what do you care?""That guy is all over you, that is not really necessary for this mission""What if I like it? Maybe I want him as much as he wants me. Maybe I'll finally sleep you out of my body""Don't you dare Ino!" he hissed"Don't I dare what Shika? You are freaking engaged, and it's not to me! You have no room to talk here. You left me, remember?""But he is no good for you."

"And Temari is not good for you."

"And why the hell not; what do you know about her?"

"I know she is not me", I said and pointed out to him that Temari was coming our way.

"This is not over Ino", he whispered"Excuse me I remember you making extremely clear that it was"."You know what I mean", he said finally calming down."It was you who left me Shika, you who broke my heart, so don't try to make someone else the villain". I walked past Temari without giving her even a glance. What I really wanted was to beat the ever living lights out of her but I didn' would come to hate me as well but right then was not the time. Our mission ended and my revenge had been pretty effective. Now is when things took a turn for the stupid, at least on my asked me to be his real girlfriend and I agreed. He was very, very passionate and very loving. We were pretty hot and heavy for about 4 months. He would come visit me in Konoha as much as he could and if I had to go by the Sand he would make me promise I would stop by to see him. Shika would call me every single night to see if I was alone under the premise of us staying friends. I knew what he was doing and it brought me some kind of happiness and hope. I knew he still cared about me, if not he would not really bother. Things with Gaara never really changed intensity but things definitively changed. He rented a place in Konoha and he would stay for weeks at a time. He started to try to boss me around and tried to prohibit me from doing things he did not like. He got on my nerves very quickly and I told him to go boss someone else around. He began to stalk me big time. It was just as intense as all our relationship had been. Our lovemaking was intense and so were our fights, and now so was his stalking. It got so bad my dad had to hire some shinobi to protect me around the clock. Even Tsundae had to get involved so he would leave Konoha and keep his distance for awhile. He still sends me messages, called me on the phone and even went cliché on me and sent me a note which read "If I can have you nobody will". I called Shikamaru crying the night I received the letter and he sensed how terrified I was so he came over to my house. He promised me that he would tell Temari to speak to her brother and kind of made him come to terms and lower the Looney dial. I cried a lot that night and Shika was there for me. He lent me his shoulder and not even once he told me 'I told you so'.

" I feel so much safer when you are here Shika""Anytime, you know that no matter what has happen between us, I will always care about you and you can count on me"Damn him, he was so there in my heart. I would have taken him back right then without giving a heck about all the pain he had put me through in the past. I loved Shikamaru and that was obviously not changing any time was decided; I would fight for Shikamaru until the end. I waited for the first sign of trouble, which seemed to happen pretty often between them, to make my move.I told Shika I did not care if he had a girlfriend and I did not care if people called me a slut but I was going to be his lover as long as he wanted me; no strings attached. Of course he said no when I told him but that night when n I entered his room and began working my magic it was him who took my clothes off. I felt vindicated. He wanted me still and I knew deep down that he still loved me. I really wanted to know why he had chose her over me but I never asked. I was to be his release and happiness and I was that even after he said, I do. He would sleep in my apartment most nights, blaming it on his job and his alliance to Konoha. He loved me, and told me often that marrying Temari was the worst decision of his life. He loved her, as well as me, but he loved me more. When I was twenty-five I had my first baby; Shika's baby and his first. That is when Temari finally found out about us. She kicked him out and he simply left. When Shikamaru told me, I was still in the hospital. We had a boy and he could not be any happier. That day he finally told me why he left me for Temari.

"I was always afraid of tying my self to just one woman, afraid that my heart would only ever beat if you were smiling at it. I needed to find out for sure if you were it or not. Temari was sexy and very aggressive. She kissed me and made sure her brother saw us being intimate. Of course I was made the guy who stole her virtue, even though I did not had that privilege; obviously someone else had done that some years back. Temari was in love with me and it was her way of making sure I would marry her. That is why I told you not to mess with Gaara. I knew how that family worked. I cannot blame her for all though. I did sleep with her when I was still your boyfriend. Well it happen the night before I went to the flower shop. I am a man of honor and a man of my word. I promised her family I would marry her and I did. I loved Temari in a different way. But the truth is that every day I thought of you and I would wish on the stars we would have missions so I could at least see you and make sure you were ok. I know that there is no excuse for what I put you through but I want to make it all as it should have been from the start. I want us to be a family the right way. I am absolutely sure that you are the one for me for the rest of my life"Yes, I was crying and yes I believed each word he said.

Shikasuma Nara was one and a half years old when Shika and I got married. He was our little ring bearer. Sakura's daughter Lila was the flower girl. Sakura was a single mother and Lila's father was a big mystery. I always thought she looked like Kakashi Sensei but I was prudent enough to keep my theories to myself. Shikamaru was the best husband and still is to this day. Some women still look at me in the street like I am a slut, because it was common knowledge in Konoha I was Shika's lover while he was married to Temari. I just saw it as me being with the man who was the love of my life, rightfully mine even before she took him from me. If that means being a slut then I'll wear the title with pride.

The End


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